| Busse pays fine for stealing campaign signs |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 10:23 pm
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NORTHFIELD — Former visiting St. Olaf College professor Philip Busse paid a $480 fine after pleading guilty to misdemeanor theft charges stemming from a series of political campaign sign thefts.
During the election season earlier this fall, Busse admitted to taking multiple John McCain/Sarah Palin lawn signs along a stretch of Hwy. 19 near St. Olaf in an article on the “Huffington Post,” a national news blog. After receiving several complaints about Busse’s article, members of the Rice County Sheriff’s Department met with Busse in late October and charged him with theft of three campaign signs.
The erstwhile journalist and professor appeared in Rice County Court on Dec. 1 and pled guilty to the theft, according to the Rice County Attorney’s Office. Shortly after being charged, Busse resigned his position in the St. Olaf College Media Studies department.
Because it is so difficult to track down individuals who do steal campaign signs, Sergeant Dave Stensrud of Rice County Sheriff’s Office said, rarely is the department able to prosecute the thefts. In this case, however, Busse’s own article, and a photo of the stolen signs in a recycling bin attributed to Busse, made the investigation fairly straight-forward.
“Normally you don’t have that much concrete evidence,” Stensrud said. “It was pretty quick from start to finish.”
In addition to the fine, Busse also faces an $880 restitution claim filed by the Scott and Rice County Republican parties for the material cost of 50 political signs — the number of missing signs for which the Republican parties believe Busse might be responsible.
“It was our feeling that he owed that amount to us,” said Kathy Dodds, the chair of the Rice County Republicans. “We did feel that the theft of those signs dug right into our pocketbook.”
In the article, titled “Confessions of a Lawn Sign Stealer,” Busse likened his thefts to an act of civil disobedience and said that stealing the signs was “one of the single most exhilarating and empowering political acts that I have ever done.”
“Whether he was a Democrat, Republican or Independent, what he did was so unusual and so brazen,” Dodds said.
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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